Weather Routing is Proud to be a Sponsor of the Oasis Lounge at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show
Kyle Petroziello, Senior Meteorologist

Weather Routing is excited to announce another year as a sponsor for The Oasis Lounge at the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show later this month from October 28th - November 01st! The Oasis, organized by maritime travel agency Global Marine Travel, is a lounge where captains, crew, and invited guests can take a break and enjoy comfortable seating, drinks, and snacks each day of the show. Two locations will serve all yachts at the show - one at the Superyacht Village at Pier Sixty Six South, and the other in an upstairs space at the Las Olas Marina.

Oasis Lounge Superyacht Village at Pier Sixty Six South Location

The Oasis Lounge provides complimentary lunches to the yachts within the show. These lunches can be picked up, eaten on site, or delivered directly to the vessel by our Meteorologists on site. Operations Manager/Senior Meteorologist Brian Whitley and Senior Meteorologist Kyle Petroziello will be delivering lunches to various yachts, having the opportunity to meet with current clients and potential new clients at the lounge, as well as, catch up on their most recent transits. WRI appreciates this opportunity to give back to yacht captains and crew.

Oasis Lounge Las Olas Marina Upstairs Space Location

If you plan on attending, we would be happy to have you visit and enjoy the Oasis Lounge! Please email us at wri@wriwx.com if you have any questions. We look forward to seeing you at the show!

El Niño Impacts along the U.S. East Coast later Autumn through Winter
Amanda Delaney, Senior Meteorologist

El Niño has reached "super" status this past summer. This means that water temperatures over the Tropical East Pacific Ocean increased over 2°C or more above normal (in some cases close to 3.5°C). This exceptionally strong El Niño has generated the strong upper level winds over the Tropical Atlantic Ocean that has minimized the Atlantic tropical cyclone season so far this year. We have yet to have a named hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean. However, a strong and early Nor'easter developed offshore the Mid-Atlantic coast near the end of September. Could this have been influenced by El Niño and is this a trend expected into winter?

As of early October, there have only been 8 named storms and none have reached hurricane status in the Atlantic Ocean. This is the latest in the season that a hurricane hasn't formed yet (the previously latest hurricane that formed was on September 11th of 2002 and 2013). This is all due to stronger than normal, unfavorable upper level winds over much of the Tropical Atlantic Ocean that shred any thunderstorms that may form over a low pressure area that tries to develop in this region. However, there is still the potential of a late season tropical cyclone that could reach hurricane status in October or November. Most of these systems form over the Western Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico and Western Atlantic Ocean, where the sea surface temperatures are warmer and the upper level winds are generally weaker. 

An overall drop in tropical cyclones in the Atlantic Ocean has been a welcome relief compared to past record setting years. However, tropical cyclones do play a role in temporarily lowering sea surface temperatures due to upwelling (or cooler waters being drawn closer to the ocean surface from the powerful circulation). Sea surface temperatures are still 2-3°C warmer than normal over much of the Atlantic Ocean, and north of the Gulf Stream near Southern New England, the temperatures are as much as 3-4°C warmer than normal. This could set up for a far more active gale season along the U.S. East Coast then. 

During El Niño, the subtropical jet that draws moisture from the Pacific Ocean shifts farther south than normal. This subtropical jet will settle over the Southern U.S. and Northern Gulf of Mexico. Lows will move east along this subtropical jet across the Gulf coast states and offshore the Southeastern U.S. coast. The issue will be once these lows reach the warmer sea surface temperatures offshore the Southeastern U.S. coast and turn towards the Northwestern Atlantic Ocean. These could further strengthen the systems more than normal in this region and could generate stronger and more numerous Nor'easters. We already encountered the first Nor'easter in late September which is rather early. In fact, only 1% of Nor'easters affecting the Northeastern U.S. occur in September. Most Nor'easters develop between October through March. This early Nor'easter produced wind gusts up to 70kts in Long Island and New Jersey, swell up to 16-17ft and tidal flooding/storm surges along the Mid-Atlantic and Southern New England coasts. A satellite image of this unusally strong Nor'easter is found below. Although this system did appear to have a tropical cyclone like eye, the tail indicating a cold front to the south indicate the system maintained non-tropical characteristics.

If you're planning on transiting down the U.S. East Coast from New England or heading directly to the Caribbean Sea within the next few weeks, and need assistance with your transit to avoid the active weather, contact us here at 1-518-798-1110 or at wri@wriwx.com. 

WRI Services for Trans Atlantic Crossings
David Cannon, Director of Operations

Is a trans ocean crossing in your future travel plans? Are you looking for the sound, quality service that you have come to know from WRI over the years? Trans-Atlantic crossings offer many weather "pitfalls", including large "cutoff" lows and gales in the Subtropical Atlantic, stronger, more frequent gales and cold fronts, large swells, and of course, the tropics.

 

To avoid these dangers, WRI's customized routing and forecast services offers quality, reliable services, again, providing "go"/"delay" recommendations and recommended routing, based on your vessel's weather, loading, and time constraints. As an added cost-effective benefit, WRI offers prepaid, discounted trans-ocean forecast packages, with standard bundles of 12 or 18 forecasts, and with or without maps. We also offer customized discount packages to those interested.

 

To supplement these services, we continue to offer our seaweather.net weather information service, which includes real-time data, forecast charts out to 10 days, our interactive Voyage Planner page, our Tropical Tracker page, special weather statements, lightning detction plots, our SeaWeather mobile app, and more. Also, our tropical surveillance and instant severe weather alerts are included with SeaWeather subscriptions. Complimentary 15 day trials of SeaWeather are offered at no obligation, to give you the opportunity to try these features risk free. 

 

WRI is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to answer your questions and if you would like more information on our special discount packages. Call us today and see how we can assist for your upcoming transits!